What can you do at Playa Tropical, Ilocos Norte? The kids enjoyed the game room.
They had fun with the darts, billiards, and foos ball although it would have been better if the air hockey set was also working.
There’s a playground known as Yno’s playground where kids up to the age of 8 (did I remember correctly?) can spend a few minutes to an hour maybe. There are slide sets, a swing, and a small playhouse.
The resort has nice, well-maintained grounds where you can just relax and not do anything. There are a lot of photo spots so you can click your digital camera to your heart’s delight. Families will enjoy the nice infinity pool where the water temperature is just right.
The beach is actually outside of the resort grounds although it is just a short walk away. It’s a public beach so it is not that clean and the sand is gray. I, personally, was not that comfortable in the area given the dogs, chickens, jeeps, etc. Still, the kids went and played in the sand, attempted to build sand castles, played water balloons, although they did not swim in the water. The water looked clean actually but the shore wasn’t that tidy.
Parents can enjoy massage services at the resort too from 3 to 9pm. You’ll need to set an appointment beforehand and the range of prices for their different spa services was from about P795 to a bit less than P2000. I was lucky since when we were there they had a 20% off promo. So, I only paid more than P600 for their one-hour signature massage which was pretty good.
While at the resort, we checked out the Casas (separate houses with higher rates per night) just to see what they looked like. The casas were named after the elements like Fuego (fire), viento (wind/air), agua (water), etc. The casas can accommodate anywhere from 5 to 8 people. Each house has its own private pool. It’s not too safe though for families with small children or toddlers as the stairs are quite narrow and steep. The casa we checked also had two rooms but only one bathroom so if there are a lot of people in your group, it may take some time for everyone to get to use the bathroom.
One other activity which we all enjoyed in the resort was fish feeding. Near the huts where one could have one’s meals, was a pond with lots of hungry (they look like they haven’t eaten in a long time!) fish. You may ask for bread from the waiters in Cafe Amarra which is what we did the first time (and they graciously gave us some for free). For the subsequent times, my husband and I already decided to order extra bread so that we could have more and so the whole family could have more fun too.
We all had a great time watching the fish eat the bread. They looked so hungry that some of them were even willing to go on top of a rock (out of the water) just to get the bread that landed there. Some fish kept wiggling and eating out of the water before quickly getting back to the pond. My kids enjoyed the activity so much.
During our stay in Ilocos Norte though, we didn’t stay locked up in the resort but also had time to go around the place. Up next would be our Ilocos Norte tour. Stay tuned.